Breaking bad records: How to solve the Raiders penalty problem
A foul putrid odor has hung over the franchise for years like smog in Los Angeles. Penalties, the plague of the Oakland Raiders existence. On a day when Derek Carr set records for what he did with his right arm, the entire team set a record that nobody should be proud of.
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23 accepted Penalties, 3 declined penalties, and 1 offset penalties for 200 yards was the finished tally. An NFL record, one that like Joe Dimaggio’s 56 game hitting streak should never be broken or come close to breaking. This is a deep rooted culture issue that only briefly was rectified by Dennis Allen during his short stint as head coach.
Every Raiders team has been dogged by flying yellow handkerchiefs for as long the oldest Raiders fans have been alive. Every player on every team has acknowledged it as a problem. Every coach has vowed to correct it and used cliches such as “we’ll get it cleaned up.” “We can’t allow this to continue.” “We will get this fixed.” “It’s a problem.” “We can’t have mental mistakes.” Yet the Raiders continue to lead the league in penalties and penalty yards year after year after year after year.
Jack Del Rio
Jack has done great things for this franchise, he has been the rudder to the ship this team has lacked for over a decade. In a year and a half he has coached the team out of obscurity, the good he has done is immeasurable. His no nonsense accountability approach has rang true and resulted in a 6-2 record for the first time in 15 years. Regardless of where the Raiders finish this season, be it playoffs or they don’t win another game he is failing his squad.
When you have sold an entire organization and fans on a bag of goods with the primary ingredient being DISCIPLINE, you don’t break the NFL penalty and penalty yards for a single game record. You don’t lead the league in penalties consecutively. While we laud the Raiders for yesterday’s gutsy performance and record setting day by Carr we can no longer give Coach Del Rio a pass. For the last 25 NFL weeks we have heard a variety of coach speak and cliche come pouring out of Del Rio’s mouth concerning penalties. It is time for Del Rio to stop talking and start implementing change. As the saying goes, “if you aren’t coaching them up you are letting it happen.”
Penalty breakdown
Taunting-1
Holding-4
Intentional Grounding-1
Delay of game-1
Pass Interference-2
Unnecessary Roughness-4
Illegal use of hands-2
Illegal formation-2
Ineligible downfield on kick-1
12 men on the field-2
False start-2
Illegal block above the waist (block in the back)-1
By my count 14 penalties are purely mental penalties meaning they were caused by a brain fart, not paying attention to details. 12 men on the field is pure laziness on the part of whoever it was with his thumb up his butt not running off the field with any degree of hustle. Committing this atrocity twice in the same drive should be fineable. Illegal formation is the result of not paying attention to where you are supposed to lineup on the field. While there are many different formations and personnel packages in this league, these men are supposed to be professionals. Learning where and how to line up is football 101, learned in Pop Warner football.
Ineligible man downfield on a kick is a penalty where someone was trying to be a hero and not play his position. As a lineman on punt coverage you are taught to hold your water until you hear the sound of the ball striking the punter’s foot. A loud unmistakable sound coming from the best punter in the league. False start on the road is a little bit more forgivable, considering more times than not the offense is utilizing the silent count. Delay of game on the goalline is a cardinal sin! When you have timeouts at your disposal and you are at the goalline everyone on the team failed miserably. There is no excuse, explanation, reason, or circumstance why you take that penalty. NONE!
The intentional grounding call was beyond questionable as Carr was trying to kill a play which should have been blown dead to begin with. Taunting enough said when you make the game about you instead of the team. Making yourself look like a fool losing 15 yards while you attempt to show up another player. Another grievous example of defensive stupidity is hitting a sliding quarterback in the head, let alone at all. Players who continue to commit this foul week after week need to be benched.
The Solution
All of these are indications that discipline isn’t valued quite as highly as we are being led to believe. Simple mistakes and an easy fix. All it requires is paying attention to detail, mixed with some give a damn. We will never know what Raider team discipline for penalties is behind closed doors. Nor should anybody not associated with the team. What I can say, is coaches need to start treating this like a business and start stinging players in the wallets.
If players are being fined already they need to upgrade the fines to more of a deterrent. Money talks and for far too long with this franchise this penalty B.S. has been walking. In spite of the phenomenal play from the Raider offense after the halftime break, this was a game they deserved to lose. Winning cures everything, but when you commit a record number of penalties it needs to be nearly the sole focus moving forward.
You can follow Philip Robinson on twitter: @chocP3thunder
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